WUPJ Library

This week’s Parasha, Ki Tisa, illustrates, among other lessons, how ordinary, mundane administrative matters of life – like the taking of a census and fiscal upkeep of a community – interface with grand and dramatic episodes of life: the revelation of cosmic truths translated into human terms.

by Rabbi Dr. Shaul (Paul) R Feinberg, Associate Dean Emeritus, Hebrew Union College , Jerusalem This week’s Parasha opens with an administrative injunction: a call for a census of males of military age. For a number of reasons the census was to be carried out by counting a one-half shekel contribution to the Temple. As […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild, Rabbi of congregation ‘ Or Chadasch ‘ in Vienna, Austria. A while ago we suffered a near catastrophe at home; my daughter was heating some oil on the stove, preparing to fry something, when the oil caught fire. Flames shot up from the pan and the kitchen filled […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild, Rabbi of ‘ Or Chadasch ‘ Liberal Jewish Community, Vienna Remembering the Future ” Remember what they did to You! Remember what they did to Us !” In Deuteronomy 25:17 to 19 Moses is of course addressing the adult children of those who left Egypt and who were […]

by Rabbi Rich Kirschen, Director of Israel Programs, Union for Reform Judaism So what do we have here in this week’s Torah Portion of Tetzaveh? Unfortunately we have a very long and not very interesting description of the High Priest and the clothes he is about to wear before ordination. We have instructions for building the […]

My brother-in-law has many talents. In addition to playing the banjo, he’s a builder and carpenter; attorney specializing in environmental issues; and all around good guy. But his passion is olive farming. This year, with the help of volunteers from around the world as well as extended friends and family from our home at Kibbutz Gezer, he harvested two tons of olives. In many ways he embodies A.D. Gordon’s “Religion of Labor” and the philosophy of Labor Zionism.

by Rabbi Danny Burkeman, The Community Synagogue , Port Washington, NY When I was 22 years old I applied for a job as a movement worker at RSY-Netzer. This was a one-year position for graduates of the youth movement who were just completing university. It was a job for which there was no uniform, and […]

Parshat T’zaveh continues the account of God’s instructions to Moses concerning the building of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. It concentrates on the inauguration of Aaron and his sons as the first priests of the Israelite people, an event of political as well as religious significance. From now on, priesthood and prophecy will be clearly […]

by Rabbi Tirzah Ben-David, Rabbi of Shir Hatzafon Progressive Congregation , Copenhagen, Denmark Our Parasha deals with the legendary institution of the Priesthood in ancient Israelite society, and focuses on the importance of appearances. What the high priest wears – the linen vestments, the breastplate, the twelve stones representing the twelve tribes – is an intrinsic […]